Chandigarh, March 26: The Mahila Kisan Union had alleged that Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, during his Delhi visit, had completely failed to raise the demands of Punjab with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and bring money to the state through central schemes as the former without raising any other demands was begging to take loans from the union government.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, State President of Mahila Kisan Union, Bibi Rajwinder Kaur Raju said the CM did not speak to Modi to fulfill all the written promises made by the Central Government to end the farmers’ agitation (Kisan Andolan). Apart from this he has not made a strong demand to get financial assistance under centrally sponsored schemes for various departments of the state beside opening of borders for facilitating international trade, introduction of more international flights, protection of federal structure and funding public welfare schemes.
The woman farmer leader said Bhagwant Mann held an official meeting with the Prime Minister without any prior administrative preparation, which did not yield any fruitful result as there was no other issue other than asking for loans. Bibi Raju expressed that the Punjab coffers are already indebted to billions of rupees and now with an additional loan of one lakh crore rupees, the debt burden on the already indebted state would skyrocket further.
Bibi Raju informed that during the recent assembly elections, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had promised the Punjabis that he would raise Rs 30,000 crore by eradicating corruption from the state and Rs 20,000 crore by eliminating sand mafia. “If the AAP government can raise Rs 50,000 crore through this formula, then what is the need to take a loan from the Center now” ?, she asked.
The women farmer leader expressed that due to the retraction from the written promises made by the central government with the farmers to end the Kisan Andolan, it was imminent that second phase of the farmers’ movement could start in the coming months. Keeping in view the Chief Minister should have raised his voice in front of the PM to fulfill the agreed demands of the farmers so that the farmers could get justice and instead of agitating, they would have used their energy for more agricultural production for the progress and prosperity of the country, she said.
Bibi Rajwinder Kaur Raju lamented that farmers did not have as much expectations like traditional parties from the Aam Aadmi Party government, which came to power with a guarantee of revolutionary changes in the administration, so ‘Annadata’ has no other option but to agitate.
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